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About two years ago, my brother, dad and I hiked from Stechelberg, in Switzerland’s Bernese Oberland, to the peak of the Schilthorn, a 2000 meter hike. You start in the valley, immediately begin climbing, and six to eight hours later, you arrive at the summit, where you can take the cable car back to Stechelberg and catch the bus home.

The hike begins below the treeline, plateaus briefly in alpen meadows where grazing cows provide distraction (and sometimes obstacles), and then you start clambering over large boulders until you reach this path through shale. Depending on how many breaks you need, there’s only about an hour of hiking left from this point (there’s more boulder clambering, and a stretch of path where you can look over the edge into the other valley and imagine yourself falling, if not to your death, then at least to your serious injury. Better to just look ahead).

My brother and I have conquered this mountain twice. I plan to do it at least once more, knees permitting.